The Cabinet Member Signing meeting on Wednesday, 17th January 2024, saw Councillor Peray Ahmet, Leader of the Council, approve a significant budget virement to address fire safety issues. This decision will fund essential works to comply with regulatory requirements and enhance resident safety.

Fire Safety Contract Budget Virement

Councillor Peray Ahmet, Leader of the Council, authorised virements totalling £2,100,540.00 to fund critical fire safety programmes. This includes £980,320.00 in revenue expenditure and £1,120,220.00 in capital expenditure for the financial year April 2023 to March 2024.

The decision was made in response to a breach of the Home Standard identified by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) in March 2023, following a voluntary self-referral by the Council. The RSH issued a Regulatory Notice, which remains active until full compliance is achieved. To address this, Haringey Council entered into a Voluntary Undertaking with the RSH in July 2023, committing to clear all high-risk fire actions by 31st March 2024. Failure to meet this deadline could result in direct intervention from the RSH.

The approved funding will support the completion of approximately 1300 of the remaining 2000 overdue high-risk fire actions. These works require multiple external contractors due to resource and specialist certification needs. The report highlighted that significant progress has already been made, with the number of homes without a valid electrical safety certificate reduced from over 8000 to 600, with the remaining properties being subject to legal intervention due to access issues.

The virement is intended to cover the costs associated with three fire stopping contracts, one bin chute contract, three fire enclosure contracts, and three survey programmes. The total cost of these works is £4.18 million, with £2.08 million to be funded from the 2024/25 revenue and capital budgets. The Director of Finance confirmed that the necessary funds can be vired from the Existing Homes Major Works capital budget and the HRA Revenue Reserve.

The Operational Director for Housing & Building Safety noted the positive co-regulatory relationship developed with the RSH and the substantial work undertaken to address recommendations from the Housing Ombudsman investigation. The decision aligns with the Council's asset management strategy, which aims for zero non-decent standard homes by 2028, and contributes to the Corporate Plan's theme of ensuring everyone has a safe, sustainable, stable, and affordable home.

The alternative option of doing nothing was considered, but rejected as it would lead to the Council failing to meet its commitments to the Regulator. The Head of Legal and Governance confirmed there were no legal reasons preventing the Leader of the Council from approving the recommendations. The report also stated that no negative equalities implications were predicted from this decision, as its purpose is to enhance resident safety.

The meeting was attended by Councillor Peray Ahmet, Leader of the Council, with Jahedur Rahman and Ayshe Simsek also present. No apologies for absence, urgent business, declarations of interest, or deputations/petitions were noted.

The full details of the report and the decision can be found in the Public reports pack and the Printed minutes. The Agenda frontsheet for the meeting is also available.